


Fledgling

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Family, Fluff, Flying, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 00:13:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14629977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Kes was solid and sturdy, his feet upon the ground; Poe was like Shara, at home in the sky.Shara teaches Poe to fly.





	Fledgling

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [StarWarsMothersDayPromptFest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/StarWarsMothersDayPromptFest) collection. 



“Mama! Mama,  _ please _ can we go up now?”

Shara dumped chunks of chopped vegetables into the bowl on the counter and swept the back of her wrist over her forehead, looking down in faint exasperation at the top of Poe’s curly head. “I said not today, Poe. Who’s going to finish dinner if we don’t?”

She said ‘we’, though Poe had been spending more time running his mouth than actually helping. He distracted himself so easily that he would sit over the same task for three times as long as it actually took him to complete it.

“Daddy can do it.”

“Daddy’s not coming home until late, remember?”

“Oh. Well, I’m not hungry anyway. We can go up for just a little while, and then we can finish dinner.”

Poe seemed particularly pleased with himself for arriving at this brilliant compromise. Shara tried hard not to smile.

“But I’ve already said no.”

“But I’ll be extra good, I promise!” Poe looked up at Shara with his big eyes.

He was bound to be a terror when he was older, Shara was sure of it. “And you won’t just beg me again to fly tomorrow, just like this?”

“No,” Poe said, but he was scuffing his toe and dropping his gaze like even he knew this was an awful lie and he couldn’t make it to Shara’s face.

“If I say yes, will you tidy your room like I asked you to?”

“Yes!”

“And you’ll help me finish dinner instead of just chattering away?”

“Yes! I promise!”

Shara pretended to hesitate, watching Poe’s pleading, big-eyed gaze, until she finally relented. “All right, then, just for a little while. And you’ve promised to be good.”

“I will, I will! Thank you, Mama, let’s go, come on!” Poe tugged at her hands.

Unable to smother her laugh, Shara said, “Okay, okay, I’m coming! Let me wash my hands, you little monster.”

“I’ll go on ahead!” And as quick as that, Poe was off, running towards the door.

“Don’t get in without me!” Shara called after him. She washed and dried her hands swiftly before following Poe. 

It had rained earlier and the air was humid and thick; Shara could practically feel her hair frizzing. They kept the A-wing beside the house, beneath an overhang she and Kes had built to protect the ship from the elements. That was where she found Poe, bouncing around excitedly, reaching up to touch the nose of the A-wing just like Shara did. He had to jump a little to reach and it made Shara’s heart swell with fondness.

“Come on, Mama,” he said as soon as he saw her. “I checked to make sure it’s all good, just like you told me.”

“Good, Poe,” Shara said, but circled the ship herself anyway. “I trust you but every good pilot checks for themselves.”

Poe nodded like he was taking that as advice to hold onto. He had always loved starships, since he was a toddler playing with models, but as he grew it only became clearer that flying was in his soul, like it was for Shara. He took every scrap she told him to heart, learning and learning.

He climbed up into the cockpit with her, letting Shara settle him on her lap. “Do you remember how we start her?” she asked.

“This one first,” Poe said, pointing out the lever on the console, “and then this.”

“That’s right,” Shara said, ridiculously proud of him. She let Poe help her check the systems and get the ship started up, then carefully pulled out of the hangar and soared into the sky.

Poe whooped in excitement as they left the ranch behind, his simple joy infectious. Shara let him curl his small hands around the flight stick so he could feel the shifts as Shara altered their course. She might have balked at taking Poe up again but honestly, she  _ lived  _ for this. She relished the opportunity to fly for no more reason than the flying itself, soaring up above the Yavin jungles and watching the land spread out beneath her.

Kes was solid and sturdy, his feet upon the ground; Poe was like Shara, at home in the sky.

He was wiggling in her lap, leaning first to the left, and then right, peering through the viewport, overly eager to see everything at once. He never released his grip on the stick, though, holding as steady as he would if he were actually in control.

“Can’t you go faster, Mama?” Poe pleaded.

“She’s built for space,” Shara said, smiling a little at the way Poe was trying to nudge forward on the throttle, like Shara wouldn’t notice. “You feel how the wind and the air currents make our flight feel a bit rough, like the cockpit’s shaking? That’s how a starfighter feels in atmosphere.”

“But you can still go faster, Mama, I know it.”

Shara used one hand to knock the back of Poe’s head lightly. “A-wings are just about the quickest starfighter out there, but they’re temperamental. You have to be just as quick as they are, your thinking, your reflexes, or you’ll end up crashed into a moon.”

“You must be the greatest pilot ever,” Poe said, his voice filled with awe.

Shara laughed, turning the ship in a half-loop. “Well, I don’t know about that, but I can handle myself in a cockpit.”

“I’m going to be the best pilot in the galaxy when I’m older.”

“You’ll have to work very hard, then.”

“I will! I’ll fly every day, and I’ll fly A-wings, and X-wings, and freighters, and cruisers, and everything!” As if to prove it, Poe straightened his back and focused more fully on the A-wing’s flight path, like he was embracing the seriousness of his goal.

“Every day, huh?”

“Yeah, to be the best!” Then it seemed to dawn on Poe what Shara had meant by it. “Well,” he relented. “Maybe every day you say it’s okay, until you let me fly on my own.”

“When you’re big enough for that, you know I’ll still need to tell you it’s okay, bigshot. This ship is still mine, and you’re still my kid.”

Poe sighed. “I guess. Can I get a simulator? A good one?”

Startled into another laugh, Shara said, “I don’t see why not. It’s certainly safer.”

“Because it’s fake.”

“Every good pilot practices in a simulator. I learned that way, and we had them in the Rebellion, for downtime.”

“Then I definitely need one!”

“For your birthday,” Shara promised. “Just pretend to be surprised.”

“I can pretend so good. Daddy still doesn’t know I’d already been up to the top of the temple when he thought he was taking me for the first time.”

“And Daddy will never know, that was terribly naughty of you.”

“I know,” Poe said, perfectly undisturbed by it.

As they turned back to the ranch, Shara did a couple of tight loops, mostly to make Poe shout in excitement but, if she was honest, just a little bit to show off, too. She talked Poe through the landing process, and he didn’t let go of the stick until they were safely settled on the ground.

“Now, what did you promise me?” Shara asked, hands on her hips as Poe ran around the property, babbling about how great that had been and when could they fly again?

He stopped and looked at her with those big eyes, inherited from his father. “To help?”

“Yes,” Shara said and made a shooing gesture.

Poe ran inside.

He did, as it turned out, keep his word. He never stopped talking, of course, but they finished dinner together and after they ate, he cleaned his room just as he had said he would. As the evening wore on, Shara sat with a holonovel while Poe tired himself out making up elaborate stories to act out with his toys, stormtroopers and rebels and X-wings, and he even put them away again when Shara declared bedtime. 

Poe allowed himself to be put to bed with a story, and Shara told him about Princess Leia and Jabba the Hutt for what felt like the five hundredth time. As he began nodding off, he said, “Mama, I’m not gonna lie. I’m gonna ask you to go flying again tomorrow, even though I said I’d be good.”

“That’s all right, baby,” Shara said, and kissed his forehead. “Go to sleep.”

“Thank you, Mama,” Poe said, and closed his eyes.

Shara turned off the lights and closed his door, silently wishing him pleasant dreams of soaring through the skies. She returned to her holonovel, reading until Kes came home.

She heard his footsteps down the hallway, stopping at Poe’s door first; she heard the sound of the door opening, then closing a little later. His footsteps echoed a few seconds longer before he appeared in the doorway, giving Shara a tired smile before collapsing on the bed beside her.

“Hey,” he said, and rolled over until his face was buried in her middle.

Shara let her hand drop onto the back of his head, stroking. “Hey.”

“Everything good with Poe?”

“Oh, you know. He was helpful, only after he begged me to take him flying.”

Kes chuckled into Shara’s stomach. “And you did?”

“I did,” Shara admitted.

“I told you this would happen,” Kes said, pushing Shara’s shirt up to kiss her belly. “As soon as you took him up in that ship, it was never gonna be enough.”

“I know,” Shara sighed. “I did it to myself.”

“You’re not even mad about it.”

Shara tried not to smile and failed. “No, I’m not.”

“You’ve surrounded me now,” Kes said, his whining faintly muffled against Shara. “Married a flygirl and we produced a flyboy. What did I do to deserve this?”

“You must have been very, very good in a previous life,” Shara said, and dropped a kiss onto the top of Kes’ head.

“Must’ve been,” Kes mumbled in agreement, and dozed off, using Shara as his pillow.

“Lights off,” Shara said quietly, and thought that she must have been very, very good, too.

-

In the morning, Poe begged her to go flying again.

Shara said yes.


End file.
